News & Views

Member Spotlight: Jim Turner, director, corporate affairs at Humana, discusses healthy communities, new metrics, and his family's love of national parks

02/06/2018

We recently spoke with Jim Turner (@JimTurner24),
director, corporate
affairs at Humana, about their exciting work to improve the
health of their communities and how they’re measuring their
progress.

Read on to learn how Humana applies the CDC’s “Healthy Days” metric,
how Jim would like to collaborate with fellow members, and which
national park his family will be visiting next.

What project are you most excited about right
now?

JT: Two actually – working with Humana’s “Bold Goal”
team, and my work with the Humana Foundation, focused on helping all
people have the opportunity to live healthier lives.

In 2015, Humana announced a Bold Goal to improve the health of the
communities we serve 20 percent by 2020, “because we make it easy for
people to achieve their best health.” The company established this goal
fully appreciating that for far too many people, achieving their best
health is far from easy. As the leader of our Bold Goal work likes to
say, good health is hard.

We also knew we needed a solid metric to track if we were serious
about measuring the health improvements of the communities we serve. We
settled on the CDC’s Healthy Days metric. The beauty of Healthy Days is
its simplicity. People are asked four questions about their physical and
mental health, and how many healthy or unhealthy days they had in the
past month. Over time, we’ve been charting our progress – and have made
progress in nearly all of our Bold Goal communities. We still have a
ways to go to get to our 2020 goal, but the work is exciting and
motivating to many of our nearly 50,000 Humana employees.

On the Humana Foundation front, our team recently announced a new
strategy to focus their work on upstream social determinants of health.
They want to contribute to greater health equity in the communities we
serve, again, so that all people have the opportunity to achieve their
best health. Through a focus on asset security, food security, and
social connectedness, the foundation is taking a long-term approach to
creating that health equity.

We have a lot going on at Humana, and so much of it is exciting to those
of us who have the privilege to be a part of it.

What inspires and drives you to work on
sustainability?

JT: Our CEO likes to talk about the responsibility
that all of us at Humana have to leave the company in better shape than
we found it. I’m a big believer in this. I’ve been here for 18 years and
have seen so much change over that time.

Helping people achieve better health is our company’s history, since
its founding in 1961. But it wasn’t until 2009 that we formalized our
approach to CSR and corporate citizenship. I’ve been fortunate to be a
part of this work since 2011.

Seeing the progress we’ve made has only inspired us to want to
achieve a lot more in the months and years ahead. Given the health care issues our
country faces, we know there is no “finish line” here, and that if we do
everything we can to achieve the goals we’ve set out to achieve, we’ll
feel we have truly left the company – and health of the people we serve
– better than we found it.

Can you share something about yourself that
would surprise us? Any hidden talents?

JT: I envy all of those people who are able to
surprise us with their hidden talents. Alas, I can’t say that I have
any, though my wife would say I am oddly good at guessing things. At a
recent fundraiser for my oldest son’s high school band program, my team
took third place during Trivia Night. I know this is a bit of a reach
for a hidden talent, but it’s the best I can offer!

If you had unlimited time and resources, what
type of work would you want to collaborate with fellow SB Members
on?

JT: Given Humana’s focus on health, and our Bold
Goal to improve people’s health, this is where I’d like to identify
opportunities as part of our SB Membership to collaborate and learn from
all of the amazing people who are part of the organization. We’re
excited about what we’ve learned in recent years and how we’re applying
it, but we also know we can learn so much more by looking at what other
companies and organizations are doing to improve health in their
communities.

What do you work on in your free
time?

JT: Mostly trying to learn from my kids. They are in
10th and 6th grade and keep me up-to-date with what’s happening in the
world! Our favorite thing to do is camp in national parks. We’ve been
lucky to do this from Yosemite and Glacier to Rocky Mountain and Acadia,
and a few other places in between. We’re going to Yellowstone for the
first time this summer and are counting the days!

Why is your participation in the SB Member
Network important?

JT: We are new to the SB Member Network, having
joined SB in 2017. That being said, we’re already realizing the benefits
it will bring.

For example, I attended the New Metrics ’17 conference in
Philadelphia in the fall, and it was so helpful to hear from all of the experts about
where their companies and organizations are regarding how to integrate
their work with the UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals). We have a long way to go in this area, but gaining an
understanding of how we aren’t alone in this, and some ideas about how
best to move forward, was hugely helpful.

Anything else you'd like to share with fellow
SB Members?

JT: We can’t wait to get to know more of you. We
intend to be part of the annual conference in June, which will be the
first major SB event for our small team. We’re looking forward to
learning from SB Members. We realize how fortunate we are to get to be a
part of this group, and we’re excited about what the future will bring.
Also, if we can share a little about our health journey and any lessons
you can take from that, all the better.